But if suitable residents of the districts shall not be found, then
persons residing in other States or districts shall be appointed."

A fortnight later, on the 13th of June, a proclamation was issued for
the reconstruction of the civil government of Mississippi, and William
L. Sharkey was appointed provisional governor. Four days later, on
the 17th of June, a similar proclamation was issued for Georgia with
James Johnson for provisional governor, and for Texas with Andrew J.
Hamilton for provisional governor. On the 21st of the same month
Lewis E. Parsons was appointed provisional governor of Alabama, and on
the 30th Benjamin F. Perry was appointed provisional governor of South
Carolina. On the 13th of July the list was completed by the
appointment of William Marvin as provisional governor of Florida. The
precise text of the North-Carolina proclamation, _mutatis mutandis_,
was repeated in each one of those relating to these six States. The
process was designed to be exhaustive by fully restoring every
connection existing under the Constitution between the States and the
National Government. Viewed merely as a theory it was perfect. The
danger was that in the test of actual practice it might end like so
many similar experiments in other countries. An opponent wittily
characterized it as Government by _diagram_, accurately drawn on an
Executive blackboard.

For the reconstruction of the other four States of the Confederacy
different provisions were made. In Virginia Francis H. Pierpont had
been made governor after the State had seceded and the State of West
Virginia had been established. He was the head of the Loyal Government
of Virginia, which gave its assent to the division of the State. His
Government, the shell of which had been preserved after West Virginia's
separate existence had been recognized by the National Government,
with its temporary capital at Alexandria, was accepted by President
Johnson's Administration as the legitimate Government of Virginia. All
its archives, property, and effects, as was afterwards said by
Thaddeus Stevens, were taken to Richmond in an ambulance. As early as
the 9th of May President Johnson had issued a proclamation recognizing
Mr. Pierpont as governor of the State, and assuring him that he would
be "aided by the Federal Government, so far as may be necessary, in
the lawful measures he may take for the extension and administration
of the State Government throughout t